Just Watched

Past sunken ships and their captains

Story highlights

The Sewol and Costa Concordia captains buck a tradition of staying with the ship

In Italy, South Korea and other countries, abandoning ship can be a crime

A captain's early departure can leave a leadership vacuum, a safety expert says

When the HMS Birkenhead, a British ship carrying troops, began to sink off the coast of South Africa in 1852, the captain and military officers on board famously allowed women and children to board the lifeboats first.

The captain and many of the troops stayed on the ship until the last, perishing in the ocean as the women and children made their way to safety. Their chivalrous act of self-sacrifice is considered to have helped set the standard for noble conduct at sea.

Other displays of courage by captains and crew members who put their passengers first have punctuated the decades since, like Capt. Edward J. Smith who went down with the Titanic.

But such bravery has been conspicuously absent from two major maritime disasters in recent times.

Capt. Lee Joon-seok of the Sewol, the South Korean ferry that sunk last week, has come under heavy criticism for abandoning the ship while hundreds of passengers remained on board. Dozens of them died and more than 200 were still missing Monday.

Just Watched

Why did the captain abandon ship?

South Korean ferry sinks – Sewol ferry captain Lee Joon-Seok was acquitted of murder, avoiding a death sentence, but was sentenced to 36 years in jail on November 11 for his role in the maritime disaster that killed more than 300.

Hide Caption

1 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Shoes believed to belong to the missing and the deceased are on display at the harbor.

Hide Caption

2 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Jindo harbor, where the search operation is based, has become a memorial for those who lost their lives. Yellow ribbons and photos are displayed as people come to pay their respects.

Hide Caption

3 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A joint government-civilian task force is still looking for the missing, but winter is fast approaching.

Hide Caption

4 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Ten are still missing from tragic ferry sinking last April, which killed more than 300. Six months later, families are still waiting for their loved ones to be found. The parents of 16-year-old Huh Da-yoon, pictured, are among them.

Hide Caption

5 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – The families of the ten who remain missing have been waiting in Jindo Indoor Gymnasium since the first day. Families can watch search mission in real time on a large monitor in the gym.

Hide Caption

6 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean President Park Geun-hye weeps while delivering a speech to the nation about the sunken ferry Sewol at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, May 19. More than 200 bodies have been found and nearly 100 people remain missing after the ferry sank April 16 off South Korea's southwest coast.

Hide Caption

7 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Police in Seoul detain a protester during a march Saturday, May 17, for victims of the Sewol.

Hide Caption

8 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A girl in Seoul holds a candle during a service paying tribute to the victims of the Sewol on Wednesday, April 30.

Hide Caption

9 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – People pay tribute to victims at a memorial altar in Ansan, South Korea, on Tuesday, April 29.

Hide Caption

10 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A police officer holds an umbrella for a relative of a missing ferry passenger Monday, April 28, in Jindo, South Korea.

Hide Caption

11 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean Buddhists carry lanterns in a parade in Seoul on Saturday, April 26, to honor the memory of the dead and the safe return of the missing.

Hide Caption

12 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Divers search for people in the waters near Jindo on April 26.

Hide Caption

13 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – People in Ansan attend a memorial for the victims on April 26.

Hide Caption

14 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A diver jumps into the sea near the sunken ferry on Friday, April 25.

Hide Caption

15 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a passenger weeps while waiting for news of his missing loved one at a port in Jindo on April 25.

Hide Caption

16 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – People attend a memorial for the victims at the Olympic Memorial Hall in Ansan on Thursday, April 24.

Hide Caption

17 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Yellow ribbons honoring the victims flap in the wind as a hearse carrying a victim's body leaves Danwon High School in Ansan on April 24. Most of the people on board the ferry were high school students on their way to the resort island of Jeju.

Hide Caption

18 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – People attend a memorial for the victims at Olympic Memorial Hall in Ansan.

Hide Caption

19 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Search personnel dive into the sea on Wednesday, April 23.

Hide Caption

20 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Flares light up the search area on Tuesday, April 22.

Hide Caption

21 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – The sun sets over the site of the sunken ferry on April 22.

Hide Caption

22 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a ferry passenger prays as she waits for news in Jindo on April 22.

Hide Caption

23 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – The search for victims continues April 22 in the waters of the Yellow Sea.

Hide Caption

24 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Rescue workers in Jindo carry the body of a passenger on Monday, April 21.

Hide Caption

25 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Divers jump into the water on April 21 to search for passengers near the buoys that mark the site of the sunken ferry.

Hide Caption

26 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Search operations continue as flares illuminate the scene near Jindo on Sunday, April 20.

South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of passengers look out at the sea from Jindo on April 20.

Hide Caption

29 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Police officers in Jindo stand guard Saturday, April 19, to prevent relatives of the ferry's missing passengers from jumping in the water. Some relatives said they will swim to the shipwreck site and find their missing family members by themselves.

Hide Caption

30 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Family members of missing passengers hug as they await news of their missing relatives at Jindo Gymnasium on April 19.

Hide Caption

31 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean Navy Ship Salvage Unit members prepare to salvage the sunken ferry and search for missing people on April 19.

Hide Caption

32 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Lee Joon Suk, the captain of the Sewol, is escorted to the court that issued his arrest warrant Friday, April 18, in Mokpo, South Korea.

Hide Caption

33 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A woman cries as she waits for news on missing passengers April 18 in Jindo.

Hide Caption

34 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A searchlight illuminates the capsized ferry on Thursday, April 17.

Hide Caption

35 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A woman cries during a candlelight vigil at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea, on April 17.

Hide Caption

36 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Family members of passengers aboard the sunken ferry gather at a gymnasium in Jindo on April 17.

Hide Caption

37 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – The body of a victim is moved at a hospital in Mokpo on April 17.

Hide Caption

38 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of a passenger cry at a port in Jindo on April 17 as they wait for news on the rescue operation.

Hide Caption

39 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean coast guard members and rescue teams search for passengers at the site of the sunken ferry on April 17.

Hide Caption

40 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a passenger cries as she waits for news on Wednesday, April 16.

Hide Caption

41 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives check a list of survivors April 16 in Jindo.

Hide Caption

42 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Rescue crews attempt to save passengers from the ferry on April 16.

Hide Caption

43 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A relative waits for a missing loved one at the port in Jindo.

Hide Caption

44 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Parents at Danwon High School search for names of their children among the list of survivors. Ansan is a suburb of Seoul, the South Korean capital.

Hide Caption

45 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – Helicopters hover over the ferry as rescue operations continue April 16.

South Korean ferry sinks – A passenger is helped onto a rescue boat on April 16.

Hide Caption

48 of 49

Photos: South Korean ferry sinks49 photos

South Korean ferry sinks – A passenger is rescued from the sinking ship on April 16.

Hide Caption

49 of 49

EXPAND GALLERY

Lee's actions have prompted comparisons to those of Capt. Francesco Schettino who was in command of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which crashed into a reef off the Italian coast in 2012, killing 32 people.

Witnesses said Schettino jumped into a lifeboat to flee the ship, even though hundreds of passengers were still on board. In his trial, the captain said he fell into a lifeboat when the ship listed sharply.

Schettino is now on trial on charges of manslaughter, causing a maritime disaster and abandoning ship with passengers still on board. He denies wrongdoing.

The cases of the Sewol and the Costa Concordia have raised questions about a captain's obligations to passengers when a vessel runs into trouble.

Go down with ship?

By leaving the Sewol soon after it began sinking, Lee reneged on some of his key duties, experts say.

"The captain's first obligation is for the safety of his crew and passengers," Capt. James Staples, a maritime consultant, told CNN. "He should stay on board that vessel until he knows everybody is safely evacuated.

"And then the other reason he stays on board the vessel is for salvage rights. For the captain to leave the vessel in an early situation, it's not the way it should be done."

An international maritime convention on the safety of life at sea makes a captain responsible for the vessel and all the people on board, but it doesn't stipulate that the captain stay on the ship throughout the crisis.

South Korean ferry rescue operation

EXPAND IMAGE

"You don't necessarily want a captain dying with a ship. But he has a responsibility for the safety of everybody on board that ship," said Cade Courtley, former Navy SEAL and president and founder of SEAL Survival.

"He's got to be there and take care of that," Courtley told CNN. "And this guy didn't do that. He was one of the first off. I mean, that's kind of unforgivable, basically."

Ferry disaster's toll on families

Just Watched

Could moving the ship hurt survivors?

And similarly to Schettino in Italy, Lee is facing criminal charges over his role in the disaster, including abandoning his ship, negligence, causing bodily injury and not seeking rescue from other ships.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has likened the actions of Lee and some of the ferry's crew members to murder.

Schettino and Lee are not alone in leaving a doomed ship before their passengers, though.

As well as the role of honor for captains who went down with their vessels, there is hall of shame for those who jumped ship.

In one example, the Italian steamer Sirio was wrecked off the Spanish coast in 1906, killing more than 150 people.

Its captain was reported to have abandoned the ship at the first opportunity, but he died the following year of "a broken heart" according to a report in The New York Times.

Delayed evacuation

Lee has drawn particular criticism for apparently ordering passengers to delay the evacuation of the Sewol as it foundered.

"The captain should have been passing honest and clear information on to everyone as to the situation, not telling them to just sit," said William Doherty, a retired captain with the U.S. Merchant Marines.

Lee has defended his actions.

"It is a fairly fast current area, and the water temperature was cold," he said, according to local media.

"I thought that abandoning the ship without discretion would make you drift off a fairly far distance and cause a lot of trouble. At the same time, the rescue ship did not come, and there were no fishing boats or supporting ships around to help at that time."

Lee's early departure may have exacerbated the crisis on board the ship, said Doherty, who teaches safety management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

"When the leadership cuts and runs, it leaves a vacuum that is almost impossible to fill," he told CNN.

"There should have been crewmembers going to the life raft stations. There should have been crew members mustering the passengers. So you know your head count. If there are missing people, there should have been other crew members searching the vessel to find those people."

Although U.S. law doesn't specify abandoning ship as a crime, it's a long-standing tradition that the captain be the last one off a sinking ship, according to legal experts.

"Generally speaking, the captain is the last person to get off that vessel," Staples said.

'Safer than any other vehicle'

He cautioned, though, that not all the details have emerged of Lee's actions during the crucial moments on the Sewol.

"We don't know if the coast guard demanded him to get off at that time," he said. "They may have been alongside and told the captain he had to get off at that time. We're not sure what happened there."

Lee appears to have been confident of his ability to ensure the safety of passengers in the past.

In a promotional video from 2010, he is pictured in the wheelhouse of a ship, looking out to sea through binoculars.

He praises the security a ship provides to its passengers.

"I believe it is safer than any other vehicle," he says, "as long as they follow the instructions of our crew members."